The present invention relates generally to credit cards and “smart” cards. More specifically, the present invention relates to a credit card utilizing pseudo-random numbers for authenticating financial transactions and other communications.
Credit cards and debit cards are widely used for financial transactions. Every conventional credit card has a unique, fixed number used for authenticating a transaction. The credit card number is the only information required to access the account and make a purchase. A problem with this system is that it is highly susceptible to fraud. Thieves have developed many methods for obtaining credit card numbers, which allow them access to credit and debit accounts.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,641,050 by the present inventors provides a system for highly secure credit card transactions. The system includes an electronic credit card that generates random numbers. The random numbers are verifiable by the financial institution, are unique for each card, and are unique for each financial transaction. Hence, financial transactions can be authenticated by the financial institution by checking the random numbers. A thief who steals a set of random numbers when a card is used will not be able to use the numbers a second time. This is because a new pair of random numbers is generated for each transaction. If the same random numbers are used for two transactions, then the financial institution is alerted that the card numbers have been stolen.
It would be an advance in the art to provide additional and simplified circuit designs for implementing the secure credit card transaction of the '050 patent. It would also be an advance in the art to provide increased functionality for the secure credit card.